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Cosmopolitan is featuring multiple “plus-size,” “fat” women in a magazine issue that commends every body size as “healthy.” The February 2021 edition of Cosmopolitan features women of various body sizes with superimposed text reading “This is healthy! 11 women on why wellness doesn’t have to be one-size-fits-all.” Callie Thorpe, a “plus size” blogger and model is among the featured women, and described to Cosmopolitan her involvement with the “body neutrality movement, which focused on what your body can do rather than how it looks.” “Plus-size people often feel like they can’t be part of the wellness space,” Thorpe told Cosmopolitan....

Robert H. Shmerling, MD Senior Faculty Editor, Harvard Health Publishing Do you know your BMI? Increasingly, people know theirs, just as they know their cholesterol. If you don’t know your BMI, you can use a BMI calculator available online, including this one at Harvard Health Publishing. All you need is your height and weight. Or, you can calculate it yourself, using this formula: BMI = (Weight in Pounds x 703) / (Height in inches x Height in inches). So, now that you know your BMI, is it worth knowing? What are you going to do with it? What your BMI...

The use of Body Mass Index to assess a person's health has led to millions of people incorrectly being labeled overweight or obese, researchers claim. The measurement has been used by doctors for more than 150 years, but has come under increasing criticism for being a flawed marker of health. [...] Now, however, Californian researchers claim their research will be will be 'the final nail in the coffin for BMI'. [...] This revealed almost half of Americans who are labeled 'overweight' by virtue of their BMIs (47.4 percent, or 34.4 million people) are healthy, as are 19.8 million who are...

Like millions of other American parents, my husband and I received a warning letter from the BMI police last week. Our active, healthy 8th-grade daughter is "very lean," according to her school-administered "Fitnessgram." The national student body monitors think this is a public health problem. The obesity report card lectured that because our daughter's body-mass index is "very low," we "should make certain" that she "is eating a healthy diet that includes the appropriate number of calories." Thanks, geniuses. We had no idea such measurements were taking place, and we wondered whether we were alone in objecting to this unsolicited...

(CNN) -- Mom-to-be Maggie Baumann knew she most definitely would not be "eating for two." She couldn't. During her first pregnancy, she was extremely preoccupied with just how many calories she consumed and stuck to a very strict exercise routine. "Getting on the scale at the doctor's office was very triggering for me," said Baumann of Newport Beach, California, who is now an eating disorders specialist and trauma therapist who devotes some of her practice to pregnant women and moms suffering from eating disorders. She gained 32 pounds during her first pregnancy, which is very much in line with the...

This year’s Boy Scouts of America’s national Jamboree is being billed as the most physically demanding in its history: There’s rock climbing, rappelling, whitewater rafting and biking. And Scouts will go about the sprawling, hilly landscape the old-fashioned way—on foot. Thousands of Scouts gather for 10 days starting Monday at a new location in West Virginia. Officials designed the 1,000-plus acre Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve to take advantage of the Mountain State’s natural assets, and they also put into place new physical fitness requirements that eliminated morbidly obese Scouts from participating. … This year, 30,000 Scouts ages 12...

New federal regulations issued this week stipulate that the electronic health records--that all Americans are supposed to have by 2014 under the terms of the stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed last year--must record not only the traditional measures of height and weight, but also the Body Mass Index: a measure of obesity. The obesity-rating regulation states that every American's electronic health record must: “Calculate body mass index. Automatically calculate and display body mass index (BMI) based on a patient’s height and weight.” The law also requires that these electronic health records be available--with appropriate security measures--on a national...

New federal regulations issued this week stipulate that the electronic health records--that all Americans are supposed to have by 2014 under the terms of the stimulus law that President Barack Obama signed last year--must record not only the traditional measures of height and weight, but also the Body Mass Index: a measure of obesity. The obesity-rating regulation states that every American's electronic health record must: “Calculate body mass index. Automatically calculate and display body mass index (BMI) based on a patient’s height and weight.” The law also requires that these electronic health records be available--with appropriate security measures--on a national...

Life insurers to impose 'fat tax' on the obese, costing up to 50 per cent moreBy BECKY BARROW - More by this author » Last updated at 22:37pm on 22nd February 2008  A "fat tax" is to be imposed on the obese by life insurance firms, it emerged last night.  Around 50 per cent extra could be charged on new premiums - and the threshold at which the higher rate starts will be lowered. The increased charge can be up to 400 per cent if you fall into other high risk categories, such as being a smoker or having...

Very obese women should be denied fertility treatment, experts say. The British Fertility Society is recommending women with a body mass index of 36 and over should not be allowed access to fertility treatment. Underweight women and those classed just as obese (BMI over 29) should be forced to address their weight before starting treatment, the society said. NHS guidelines say overweight women should be warned of the health risks, but do not impose any ban on treatment. Being overweight can put both the health of the mother and child at risk through problems such as gestational diabetes and high...

"The British Fertility Society is recommending women with a body mass index of 36 and over should not be allowed access to fertility treatment. Underweight women and those classed just as obese (BMI over 29) should be forced to address their weight before starting treatment, the society said. "

For some, "BMI" conjures up their version of the three main food groups: Burgers, Macaroni-and-cheese and Ice cream. The government, though, takes Body Mass Index seriously. It uses the measure of relative weight to height in clinical guidelines to identify, evaluate and treat overweight and obesity in adults. Generally, the higher your BMI, the higher your predisposition to health adversities such as cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, diabetes, osteoarthritis, some cancers and premature death. But the Body Mass Index provides only a "best guess" of the source of these troubles -- total body fat. As such the "Body Mass Index"...

Kids could have another reason to fear getting an "F" on their report card — especially if F also stands for fat. Georgia lawmakers concerned about childhood obesity are proposing legislation that would require schools to list students' body mass index — a measure of whether they're overweight — on their report cards. The intent is to "wake up parents who may not be aware their children are obese or heading that way," said state Rep. Judy Manning (R-Marietta), one of the bill's co-sponsors. Students' weight problems are "showing up in their grades, their ability to stay awake, their ability...

SAN ANTONIO (Talon News) -- A Texas legislator has submitted a bill that would instruct public schools to submit a health report card along with the academic performance of their students. State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, a Democrat representing San Antonio and Bexar County in Texas District 26, is sponsoring the "Body Mass Index Bill," or SB205. Van de Putte said teachers and parents "should be just as concerned with students' physical health and performance as we are with their academic performance." Van de Putte, who was elected to the Texas House in 1990 and then to the Texas...

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a measure of body fat based on height and weight that applies to both adult men and women. Enter your height and weight using English measures. Click on the "Calculate BMI" button, and your BMI will appear. BMI Categories, according to the National Institutes of Health: Click on the link, the results will surprise you. Underweight = Less than 18.5 Normal weight = 18.5 - 24.9 Overweight = 25 - 29.9 Obesity = BMI of 30 or greater